Gordon Culp

Does your project team see you as a leader or a manager? Project teams must be led rather than just managed in order to unleash their full potential, energy and enthusiasm. "The Lead Dog Has the Best View" examines what it takes to make the crucial transition from project manager to project leader. All too often project managers rely on their technical skills and computer-generated information about project status in their attempts to achieve success, thus confusing management with leadership. Rarely does a project fail due to lack of technical skills. Instead, relationship and communication difficulties play a key role in poor project results. This book provides a person-centered, results-driven approach to project leadership not found elsewhere. It includes a Leadership Assessment Tool that you can use to provide feedback on your leadership skills, by others as well as yourself. You'll then learn how to combine this feedback with an understanding of behavioural preferences or improving your leadership effectiveness. This volume is intended to be a frequently used tool, not just read once and put on a shelf. Each chapter includes practical exercises and checklists that can be used individually or with a project team on an ongoing basis to periodically assess and improve leadership skills and to quickly recall and apply these key concepts on projects. A valuable addition to any project manager's toolkit, "The Lead Dog Has the Best View" will make project work more fulfilling on both the professional and personal levels.

Project Success. Everyone Wants It. Not Everyone Gets It. Ever wonder why some project managers are consistently more successful than others? The best trained managers are not always the most effective--and this book explains why. It shows you in step-by-step detail how the integration of people skills with technical skills is crucial, and how the lack of a people-oriented approach is frequently the cause of project failure. Based on the authors' 40 years of successful project management experience, this practical guidebook clearly shows how productive communication, motivation and leadership skills, and self-management techniques can make a dramatic difference in meeting project goals. Then, using real-life project examples and enjoyable "hands-on" exercises, the book shows you how to build on these basic principles to: * develop practical communication techniques (see page 22) * deliver memorable presentations (see page 37) * negotiate effectively on projects (see page 89) * understand customer needs (see page 210) * set personal goals for improved self-management (see page 112) * run productive meetings and training exercises (see pages 147 and 297) * establish clear project objectives (see page 167) * motivate and lead people (see page 71) * effectively monitor project progress (see page 185) * and much more! The book concludes by linking all the people-centered skills and techniques covered into the Total Quality Management (TQM) concept, a system used with great success in the manufacturing sector. The book shows you how to apply TQM to service organization projects. Consistent project success comes when project managers focus their energy on people--the ones on their project team, others in their organization, and their clients. You will find in this highly readable professional resource the practical tools and "people skills" to achieve your project goals easily and enjoyably!